DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1519-6984.08212 Inland water microcrustacean assemblages in an altitudinal gradient in Aysen region (46° S, Patagonia Chile) Patricio De los Ríos-Escalantea,b*, Esteban Quinána and Patricio Acevedoc,d aLaboratorio de Ecología Aplicada y Biodiversidad, Escuela de Ciencias Ambientales, Facultad de Recursos Naturales, Universidad Católica de Temuco - UCTemuco, Casilla 15-D, Temuco, Chile bNúcleo de Estudios Ambientales UCTemuco, Avenida Alemania nº 0211, Casilla 15-D, Temuco, Chile cDepartamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias e Ingeniería, Universidad de la Frontera - UFRO, Casilla 54-D, Temuco dCenter for Optics and Photonics, Universidad de Concepción - UdeC, Casilla 4012, Concepción, Chile * e-mail:
[email protected] Received: January 8, 2013 – Accepted: June 4, 2013 – Distributed: February 28, 2014 (With 1 figure) Abstract The Chilean Patagonia has numerous kinds of inland water ecosystems such as lakes, ponds, wetlands and rivers that have been poorly studied due to access difficulties. This study was carried out in Aysen region, in southern Chile, and it included different kinds of water bodies such as rivers, streams, ponds, lagoons and lakes distributed along an altitudinal gradient at 46° S. It was found a low species number, essentially cladocerans, copepods and amphipods. A null model was applied in order to determine the existence of regulator factors of species associations, and the results revealed that they are not random. The patterns would be influenced by geographical and limnological characteristics of the studied sites. Our results would agree with regional studies on habitat heterogeneity such as in Torres del Paine National Park and other zones in Tierra del Fuego island.